A $2 million cleanup project is under way in Southeast Louisiana. Hurricane Isaac left its mark especially in Plaquemines Parish, but local and federal agencies are helping with cleanup efforts and keeping the environment clean.

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Isaac's flood waters dumped plenty of debris along levees and ridges in Plaquemines Parish, including some containers with potentially hazardous substances called “orphan drums.”

"Some of them are easy to get to, some are very difficult to get to," said Jeff Dauzat, with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

Since late October, the U.S. Coast Guard and DEQ have been working together to pick them up. It starts with mapping their location.

"Every orange line that you're seeing is a section of the over-flights conducted immediately after Hurricane Isaac to look for orphan containers," said Lt. Aaron Joseph, with the U.S. Coast Guard.

"Some of the targets that you see are individual containers, some of them are areas of containers that could have a couple hundred targets in them," said Dauzat.

Dauzat said crews use specialized equipment to retrieve containers from 450 sites and time is of the essence, considering the exposure to salt water.

"So if that's filled with a hazardous substance, if you don't get in and get that hazard out, eventually that container is going to be compromised and lose that product into the environment," said Dauzat.

The orphan drums were brought to a storage site in Belle Chasse. The EPA takes over from there.

"We've sampled these containers over here and put them into different categories. There is one back there for flammable liquids -- it could be paint thinners or things like that. Those will go into a category, and then we have some corrosives those will go into a category," said EPA on-scene coordinator William Rhotenberry.

Rhotenberry said the EPA tries to recycle as much as possible.

"A lot of material that comes in is oily water or used oil. The parish reclaims that and they're taking that from us and processing it here locally," Rhotenberry said.

The rest of the substances, even the empty containers are disposed of according to the law.

Authorities said some of the containers are so big, they cannot be removed. In those cases, crews must remove the substance and dispose of it.

Officials said 75 percent of the project is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and it's scheduled to be completed at the end of the year.

Many of those with the U.S. Coast Guard team working on the project will also head to the northeast to help with the Superstorm Sandy cleanup.